100 Years, One hundred tributes
by Gemmina
Summary: Primrose Everdeen is dead, because Katniss didn't volunteer. The rebellion died quickly without the Mockingjay. Now, 25 years later, the fourth Quarter Quell is upon us. But has unusual rules, like anyone from 6-30 can enter. Depending on reviews, there may be a sequel. One shot for now. Rated M to be safe.


It had been a long couple of hours since her name had been chosen on live TV for the 100th Hunger games. Lily feather, age 9, was trembling. Her name had not been shouldn't have been entered in the first place! Her parent's had entered it selfishly for the food it offered. Her parents, true careers, had no fear for her. Told her to face death boldly, and to come out on top. Told her "Lily, bye! See ya in the next life!". Or at least that was basically what they said. Lily had never gotten to half the training the others had by the age parents kinda assumed she could absorb skill by osmosis. So, she knew she was going to die. She probably wouldn't survive the first day. She waved goodbye to her district out the window of the train, taking it all in for the last time. She wanted to remember her district fondly. The ten others from district four were happily chatting. All assuming that they would win, she guessed. There was Logan Reed and his sister Ericanna, Identical twins aged around 17. There was Jolie, age 25. There was Michael and Riha, both 15. There was also Ferona, Caesar, Mele, and Nellie, aged at 13. There was Cameron, aged 11, and the other unusual, as she had taken to calling the quarter quell exceptions, Killa, aged 8. She felt bad for Killa, she knew her family had done the same thing as hers. Jolie, the old unusual, had probably also entered herself for the food, never expecting to get picked. However, she was a solid career. Lily's bet for who would win was on her.

The other 89 tributes were from the other districts, a whopping 15 of them from 12, another 17 from 11, and even more surprising, 2 from the new 13, also called 14, as no one wanted to share the same name as the rebellious state. The rebellion had been crushed over 24 years ago, but still, there was superstition. The capitol had obliterated and rebuilt, proclaiming 14 the new capitol favorite. As such, capitolites flocked there, and found themselves trapped into their new life. They lived like any other district, working, but with more food, and never allowed to return back to the capitol by law. Once you left, there was no return. From any district, at any time, except for the president and the hunger games.

In a rare turn of events, there was a tribute from the capital, a 26 year old who had volunteered in place of a 6 year old child. The youngest in the games because of this was 8. Thankfully, the children from the 'under the normal rules' category totaled 5. Her, Killa, some kid from 11, and two more from 12. She intended to talk to all of them, have a children's alliance. Maybe some of the 11 year olds would join too.

She looked out the window in time to see the capitol coming into view. Living fairly close, the ride had only been a few hours. She noted the remains of the rebellion were being wiped away. The walls filled with graffiti were being painted a silver and white pattern, adding elegance to the entryway of the capitol.

They pulled into the large, solid glass, training center. She stepped off, finding a pair of bursting twins in pink and blue wigs waiting for her. Must be her stylists. She groaned, hoping that she wouldn't be dressed like a fish again, just like the past several years. Before then it was a fishing net.

She was stripped of her hair, all of it, including the stuff on her head. She shivered and groaned as the pain washed over where her hair had been just moments ago. They waxed it until it was shiny, then stuffed her into a wavy blue and white dress. It moved with every step, bouncing up and down. She felt like a moving piece of mold. Her skin was decorated to the effect of tentacles, until she became a moving jellyfish. She guessed it was better than mold. She still hated jellyfish, one had stung her when she was little, and it had gotten infected. Because her family couldn't afford medicine, she was missing two of her fingers on her right hand.

She jerked back to reality just in time to notice that her head was covered in a rubberish dome of blue, with soft, clear strips of fabric hanging down to her feet. As she glanced in the mirror, she noted that if she didn't have feet, she would look just like a real jellyfish. She found herself shuddering at her own reflection involuntarily. She wondered what her partner would look like. Or if the group would go tried to imagine all 11 of them packed into one small chariot. She hoped they would be separate. If nothing else, to save the poor horses from struggling along the mile ride.

"When it gets dark, hit this button." The stylist with blue hair handed her a small blue button that adhered to her hand. She nodded, and headed out to meet the others.

Logan and Ericanna were sharks, Jolie and Killa were seaweed and coral pieces. Most of the others were some variation of fish or clam. She was paired with Nellie, who was dressed as an Anemone. She nodded at Lily. She obviously was hoping to be paired with Caesar, the clown fish.

Her dress was very form-fitting, a shiny came down to just above her knees. Her skin was painted red, shaded and glittery. It seemed to dance under the lights, and catch fire under the sun. Her head was surrounded by a crown of tentacles in yellow. Her head was painted and obviously shaved as well. She also had a button. Neither had any idea what they did.

Their chariot, painted in pink coral and orange fish, rolled out.

"District four females, Lily Feather and Nellie Linnamen!" The announcer called out. The stadium, a one mile trot, began to dim, lights slowly flickering on. Nellie looked at her, and they pressed the buttons. Her hat began to glow, and blue water began flowing around her, between her tentacles, in a solid waterfall, leaving a trail of mist and steam behind her. Miraculously, the chariot, ground,carts behind them and herself, were all dry. She glanced over through the streaming water to see that Nellie was also lit up, and a light fire danced around her crown, mimicking the movements of goldfish. Her dress had also come alive, swimming with fish. Lily glanced at her dress, to find the fringe was lit up and pulsing like it was swimming through water.

Finally they neared the end, and she immediately exited and went to her room to get cleaned up. She was so tired already, she couldn't stand to smile or wave anymore. She felt like punching through the wall.

"Floors black. Walls black. Ceiling tinted water" She commanded the room as she stripped and washed. The walls immediately went black, the ceiling looking like water swirling above her head. She washed away the blue paint and changed into some fleece pants and a t-shirt. She fell asleep without eating, wondering what the next day would hold. She hoped it involved a lot less people interaction. At least with the idiot capitol people. She would have to make a few alliances, so she braced herself for being nice to people. Just one alliance, then she could go back to her books, her solitude.

After sleeping, she began reading. Part to prolong meeting people, another part to learn something to help her in the games. She knew knowledge wouldn't be everything, but it could help. According to this book she found on starvation and survival, she needed to eat about 5 pounds in fat to have enough energy to go 6 days without food. She was hoping the games wouldn't last much longer than that. So, she had noodles for breakfast, along with fruit. This would become her diet for the next few meals as well. She then headed down to the training center. She found that the room was overrun with people. There was separate rooms for every district, but many had gathered in the main room to talk and show off. She located Killa, and started to move over to her. She scaled the rock wall and jumped onto the netting on the ceiling. She loved to do things like that to fishing nets, but that was in the water. She could climb while on a boat, but that was also with the rocking movement and wet netting from fish. Her adapted hands found that the dry ropes hurt her hands, and she was slipping because of this. She heaved herself into the net, and hung herself above Killa, dangling by her ankles, feet wrapped around a second piece of netting. Her face was just a few inches from the top of Killa's head. She stretched out an arm and tapped her on the shoulder.

"Killa, come up here!" The girl looked up and nodded, coming up the same way Lily had. LIlly reached up and pulled herself back over the side of the net, settling in like it was a hammock.

"Lily, what's up?"

"I was thinking…"

"That can be very dangerous"

"I know. Anyway, what do you think of a children's alliance? All the underage tributes."

"So, anyone under 17? That will work...NOT!"

"No, just the five under limit kids, and maybe one or two of the elevens."

Killa nodded. "That may be the best chance any of us have. No one wants little kids dragging them down. The elevens are already in a few alliances, but only the career ones. But it would be nice if we could recruit some of the older tributes. You know, for protection's sake."

"Let's go find the others." Lily shrugged Killa's suggestion off. It would just alert the older tributes to the formation of their alliance. Then again, they would find out anyway. It wasn't a bad idea...

She swung from the net onto a support beam, once again finding that it was much harder to do out of water. She and Killa first found the district 11 tribute.

"Hey!"

The kid looked around, confused. He was a dark skinned boy of medium stature. She would age him around ten.

"Up here!"

"HI!"

The kid scaled one of the smooth beams holding up the ceiling to join them. Lily was impressed, she needed hand and foot holds to climb.

"You stuck here too?" He cocked his head, staring at her with a lopsided grin on his face.

"Yeah. We are starting a children's alliance. You want to join?"

"Sure! Jared, by the way."

"Lily, that's Killa."

Lily had to wonder if that was too easy, of if Jared had been thinking along the same lines as her.

"Oh," Jared said, "We are bringing my friend Mika along." He pointed to a tall black guy across the room. Lily guessed he was around 19.

"Ok..why?" Lily eyed him suspiciously

"Because I won't ever desert my friend! We promised we would stick together."

"YES! Told ya we should have an older kid!" Killa almost jumped with joy.

"Fine, we can bring him along" Lily eyed him with distaste. She had only wanted a younger kid's alliance. Now they had some tagalong older guy. But how bad could having an older kid with them be?

The three of them set off, First telling MIka of their alliance. He insisted on joining them, so the four of them...Four! That would make six, and lily wanted an Alliance with an odd number of people. NOw she had to recruit another older kid. Perfect. So, the four of them set off, finding the two district 12s staying apart from each other like the other was the plague. Lily dropped to the floor.

"Hi, I'm Lilly, district four. I was wondering if you two.."

"TWO! NO way am I being in the same alliance as HIM."

"Erm. What's the problem?"

"He's my brother!"

"Oh. You don't want to protect him?"

"No way! He got me into this mess!"

"Lily, you don't have any siblings do you?" Asked Mika

"Why is that important?"

"Siblings blame each other for everything! And while they love and protect each other, they at like they hate each other when mad. And obviously, something has upset her."

She turned back to the girl. "Why is this his fault?" She asked this much more gently than before.

"I...we don't have any parents. He entered our names with the promise of good food. We both ended up here. He's the older one. I'm 8. He's ten."

"Doesn't the capitol take you away if you're an orphan?" MIka looked astounded that they were so young and on their own.

"Yea, but greasy sae gives us a home. As far as they're concerned, she's our mom."

"Oh. Well…"

"Yeah, I'll join you guys."

"Really?" Killa looked incredulous

"Can your brother come?" Mika asked very calmly

"Yeah. I...I don't know what I'd do without him. JOSH! GET OVER HERE!"

"Did something happen?"

"We have allies."

"I don't want allies."

"Not even for your sister?" Lily asked

"No. She's better off without me. I would just be a bigger target."

"But if we are a team.."

"No. That's my final answer. I will leave you guys alone, but I won't get in the way of my sister's safety. I can't protect her. Besides, you are careers, you can. You also have a habit of backstabbing. No. I won't be part of this team."

The girl looked like she was going to cry. "Josh.."

"No. Take care of her. If she dies, I will hunt you down."

"Then why don't you protect her?"

"I AM! I am a big target. By staying away, she will be safer."

Lily smirked. "Big target indeed. The others all think we will be dead by nightfall. Besides, wouldn't Mika here be an even bigger target?"

Josh simply shrugged, turned and walked away.

"What is your name?" Lilly asked the girl. She thought her brother was a jerk. Who would abandon their family like that? He had been so irrational.

"Della".

"Here's my plan. Step one, eat. Alot. Be fat, but not out of shape. Step two, learn about knives. There is going to always be knives, and they can be thrown and stabbed, and used for food. Step three, have at least one person learn about plants. Have at least one person learn about trapping. Have at least one person learn shelters, and the last one learn water filtering. That should give us the best chance. I was going to have someone specialize in defence, but we don't have another person, so we will have to take shifts. Fences, traps, things like that. Now, any specialties already?"

"I can be your fifth person" Mika volunteered, brandishing a machete at a nearby post.

"I can climb and scout!" Piped up Jared. "But Mika can be our first line of defence. He can be our scout!"

"We can swim" Said Killa, rolling her eyes, as if that was the most obvious thing in the world

"I can, uh, build things?" Della looked unsure

"With that established, let's all have an hour training with knives, then an hour in specifics of choice. Just keep the four categories in mind."

The next hour was spent throwing knives and stabbing targets. Killa could really knock the stuffing out of a dummy, but Lily could throw rather well. She could never thrust hard enough to puncture the leather targets when punching through. Della proved just about equally good at both, just about average. Jared missed every single knife he threw, but could track movement and thrust hit it very well. Mika refused to get involved, instead slicing wooden people to bits. Lily was impressed, he could cut through several inches of wood at a time. She decided he could become a valuable asset. She just hoped Mika wouldn't turn out to betray them. Or worse.

They then broke up, promising to discuss at lunch. Lily noted Della was going to the shelter station, Jared to the trapping, Killa to the water. That left her with plants, for now. She spent the hour learning how to prepare plants, which ones could be eaten raw, and which ones could be found where. Her favorite were the dandelion leaves, but the okra root was okay, better when boiled.

She met the others at lunch, making sure to load up on the carbs. She made sure to spend the afternoon on the climbing course, keeping in shape. The others had also gone to stations of their choice, from fire starting to knot-tying. She was hitting herself for forgetting they would need a fire.

The days came and went. She was satisfactorily chubby, but not out of shape. She put on the strange outfit she was offered. It was tight, thermally padded, and had a jacket built into the waist. She examined it, finding snaps around the collar. Looks like there would be hoods and mittens in the cornucopia. The outfit also had heating wires built in, but the battery pack was missing. Seemed like the outfit could be utilized, but had to be complete first. She noted it was light enough without the jacket or extensions that it could be for swimming or in a warm environment without being too hot, but with extensions it was built for cold. She climbed into the tube, her stylists giving her a thumbs up. As she launched, she waved a goodbye.

The cornucopia was located to her right, and she turned to face it. It was filled with heaters, but not portable, snow gear, and weapons of all shapes and sizes. She and Killa had volunteered to go get the stuff, the others would find the camp. As the timer counted down, she found her target. A large backpack next to a shelf of knives. She would snag some of the outfit accessories if she had time too, but doubted she would. She nodded to Killa as the timer hit zero. They both took off running. She grabbed the backpack, tossing the knives in haphazardly. Killa grabbed another backpack, and they began hurtling knives from the rack that wouldn't fit in the backpack at anyone in their way. They made it out of the inner circle, but kept running. She felt a weight hit her in the back, tripping her. She could feel the skin starting to bruise from impact, and some of the knives in her backpack dig into her back. The backpack seemed to have absorbed most of it, but she could feel blood starting to flow down her back. She hoped it was just from all the small scratches on her back. She ran another thousand feet before stumbling again, this time falling down. She tried to get up, and blacked out. She didn't want to die yet. She woke fuzzy, not all there. It must have only been a few minutes. She had a faint sense of moving her body, feeling cool and wet. She thought she felt herself shove off the backpack, take the weight off her back. She knew she had packed mud onto her back until the pain subsided. She also knew she was being moved, and she was kicking, biting, grabbing for anything. She didn't want to die. She felt a hand clamp against her throat. She couldn't breathe anymore. She knew she was still hitting, trying to scream, kicking when she lost the little light in her fuzzy world.

She couldn't remember moving. She knew she had been dragged away. But she should still be cold and wet, left to die. They had tried to kill her! She knew something didn't make sense. Was this what it felt like to be dead? She was warm, too warm. There was a heavy weight against her eyes, preventing her from opening them. As her world became less groggy and she woke up, she noticed that became clearer, she noticed that her back felt like it had hundreds of splinters in it.

"She's up!" The familiar voice of Jared pierced her ears.

 _OK, I'm not dead, that's one thing_ She thought as she tried to sit up. Her vision came back in pieces, she eventually realized they were enclosed in a tree. A TREE!? Why was she in a tree? She looked around. It had quite obviously been scraped out. They were in a large tree, she assumed near the base. She wondered why there wasn't dirt underneath her, but rough wood. She looked around, and three familiar faces looked at her.

"Where are we?"

"A tree. Della scraped it out. We were going to smoke it too, but decided it wasn't worth the risk of burning it down. Or killing you, for that matter"

"What happened?"

"An arrow pierced you in the back. You would be dead if the backpack hadn't slowed it down. It seemed to have pierced your spine, and you fainted from stress. That's what Mika said anyway"

Of course it was Mika who knocked her out. Who else had hands big enough to do that? What else was he planning? Had he intended to kill her? And if he was helping, why had he lied to the others? All this questioning caused her head to start to spin. She mustered out one clear thought.

"How long was I out?"

"28 hours, we think. You kinda faded in and out."

"How many tributes?"

"About 40 left?"

"Why didn't you take the stuff and let me die?"

"Mika found you while we were looking for a base. It seemed cruel to leave you there. Besides, I don't think you would have died."

"Food?"

"Mostly sponsors, but we did have some fish and clams the other day."

She nodded. These kids were so trusting. Why did Mika save her? Why did the others trust him? Why did they trust her?

"Now we lie low?"

They nodded. She poked her head out the door, the shelter had just enough room for everyone to sit in. She could tell they had dug a supply hollow in the wall, but couldn't fit anyone in there. It was a much farther drop than she had anticipated. They were in a huge pine tree, well hidden. And it was snowing. Why wasn't she cold?

"Guys, why am I warm, and it snowing? It was dessert hot and jungly out before…"

"You picked up a backpack full of batteries. It started snowing a few hours ago. It must be below freezing out there now. We all are warm, but the batteries only last a day each. It also had some food and water, and lots of knives."

She noted that her ears were feeling cold, not being covered by the suit. She also noticed that her jacket was on. Just then, the capitol anthem played, and she saw that there had only been one notable death for the day. Josh. Della started crying. The other deaths had been a few regulars and two olders, 13 in total. She noted that the capitol volunteer was still going.

Two more days passed like this, lowing the tribute count to 12, by freezing or career hunting.

"We are taking the cornucopia!" She announced, now in shape to fight, and all of them well fed. The tree was very edible, and they could light small fires in it without risk of being discovered to cook meat. However, they were out of batteries, and fires could only run for so long without smoking them out.

"You sure?"

"Yes. If even one of us makes it, they have the best chance at winning"

She and her pack stormed the cornucopia later, killing the resident tributes and burying them in the snow. Three cannons. She barely registered the last one, something plunged into her neck. The last pack member must have just returned. He was mad. And she had let her guard down. They had thought they were safe for now.

"LILY!" She heard Killa calling after her, stabbing her killer. It was so faint, though she knew they were screaming. 5. 5 cannons had gone off now. The last one took her with it.

She felt light. She began falling. She saw her body being carried away above her. She hit the ground above the cornucopia hard. She stood up. But was plunged back into the darkness.

She awoke later in the day, snow packed against her neck, feeling sore.

 _Just a dream. I'm not really dead._

"Killa!" she cried out, wondering where her friend was.

There was no response.

"Jared?"

Still no response.

"Shhh…"

A warm body began rocking her back and forth.

"Della?" She asked

"They're gone, Lily. I'm so sorry."

She could feel the warm tears falling down her face and into her hair. SHe could feel him choking back tears himself.

"Mika…"

"I'm here Lily. Jared asked me to save you. I just wish I could've saved him too."

"You two were really close"

"He...He was like a brother. We grew up together. His folks were abusive and I...I took him in"

She could feel the sobs wracking his body, tears hitting her face. She knew he needed to tell someone that. And he had just told the whole nation.

"I can't go back there without him, Lily. I...I don't know…."

She reached up and touched his face.

"I'm so sorry Mika"

"He would've wanted you to win. He would've wanted you to win. I was never in it to win it. I was there to save him. And I guess I failed at that, huh?" He sniffed, "He told me to save you. I won't...I can't let him down on his final wish, I just can't."

"But you should win. So his memory lives on!"

"Oh, Lily. It's too late for that." That sentence was said with a little too much resignation, a little patronizing. Just like she couldn't possibly understand.

"Mika, how many tributes are left?"

"Two"

"Oh." The gravity of the situation was setting in. Mika was setting her up to win. And that meant…She knew what he had meant earlier.

"MIKA!" She could feel the tears brimming in her eyes. Had he been keeping them alive just to keep Jared's wish? Did he love Jared so much to keep all of them alive, just so Jared could have is way? He was their protector. And now she understood, that if even one of them one, Jared could rest happy. She gasped as she felt Mika's hand slip from under her. She slapped at it without thinking. She knew from the twist that she had knocked a knife out of his hands. She saw a glint of silver. Her face had a pained expression of understanding on it.

"Don't. Please. He wouldn't have wanted it this way"

He smiled, showing her his red and orange stained mouth. She looked at the hand she had slapped, then at hers. Blood...his blood. He had slashed his wrists to keep himself alive long enough to make sure she won, to make sure she would wake up. The knife had just been to make sure she knew he wasn't murdered.

"Mika…." Tears streamed down her face. "Thank you"

It didn't seem like enough, it would never, could never seem like enough. She wanted to have time to make a proper goodbye, tell him thanks for saving her multiple times. For his last sacrifice.

"Thank you" She said again, as she felt his chest shudder, rise, and fall against hers. She slowly moved, as not to hurt herself again, reopen the wound. She lay him down in the snow, tried to make him look dignified. She shook her head. It was not befitting of him. She dragged to body inside the cornucopia cave, next to Jared. The two 'Brothers' would depart together.

Crying, she made her way outside again. She lay in the snow, wondering just how easy it would be to scrape the fallen fallen knife out of the snow and use it on herself . She heard herself be called the winner. She felt herself being picked up from the snow. She stood in the claw, perching on the sides. She knew the metal frame was shaking under her. Or maybe it was her legs that were shaking. Well, at least if she fell, it would acomplish the same task she set out to do. Just….a little less dignified.

"Thank you all. And goodbye" She smiled into the camera watching her ascent. And she jumped.

The hovercraft lurched suddenly to try and catch her. A capitol paratrooper dropped out and caught her by the arm, slowing her fall drastically. She felt like it was ripping her apart. She gasped as it plunged a syringe into her neck.

She awoke with a start in a hospital bed. She quickly learned they had cut the footage after she stood up and said thank you to the audience. They had known something was wrong.

Months later, she was working with a psychiatrist. She lived in a safe room built for her in the capitol after she tried to kill herself multiple times. She hadn't seen her family yet. She was scared. She pet her dog, Mika, absentmindedly. She had gotten him to help with her panic attacks and PTSD. She was doing better. She would be going home soon. She wasn't sure she wanted to. She stood up, accidentally stepping on Mika's paw.

"I'm sorry Mika" She mumbled, bending over to make sure her dog was alright. She could've sworn she heard a faint response of "I'm sorry too".


End file.
